What is the MMR vaccination?

When is it usually given?

It's offered to all children at 13 months of age, followed up with a second vaccination for children of school age. The MMR vaccine is given on the NHS as a single injection to babies as part of their routine vaccination schedule, usually within a month of their first birthday. They will then have a second injection of the vaccine before starting school, usually at three years and four months.

Why is it given?

Natural measles, mumps and rubella infections can potentially have serious repercussions, including brain damage, disability, deafness, blindness and death in a significant proportion of cases.

An effective vaccine like MMR that prevents these is therefore highly desirable.

What are the known side-effects?

The known side-effects are rare but include local tenderness at the injection site, a mild fever and occasionally, convulsions.

Compared with the consequences of the natural diseases, the benefits are considered to vastly outweigh these non-serious risks.

Why has it become controversial?

In a single, uncorroborated study a theoretical link between MMR vaccination and autism and Crohn's disease (an inflammatory bowel disorder) was proposed.

This received widespread publicity and fuelled the demand for the availability of single vaccines on the (again) theoretical premise that a baby's immune system could not cope with three antigenic challenges simultaneously.

Other large studies from around the world have found no link between MMR and these two conditions.

Media coverage

Media coverage initially alarmed some people with emotional and anecdotal storylines and subsequently failed to reassure them with the genuine scientific arguments.

What the official line says

The Department of Health, the WHO, the US administration, 20 years' experience and 350 million doses worth of experience all say the MMR vaccine is safe. They also say that single vaccines are riskier in that the children remain unprotected for longer.

What the critics say

Critics say that since there is some doubt, the single vaccines should be made available.

Single vaccines

There is no UK licence for the use of single vaccines. Some private clinics and a very few GPs obtain supplies from abroad, but some such supplies (Urabe & Rubini mumps) may pose inherent risks as the former may cause meningitis and the latter is only 12 per cent effective.

Falling vaccination rates

In some regions the vaccination rate has fallen to 75 per cent because of parental concerns – a level insufficient to prevent a major epidemic.

Fear of an epidemic

Recent outbreaks of measles in the United Kingdom – along with the significant health problems these have caused – have shown the serious effects that non-vaccination causes and should levels of MMR uptake continue to fall then experts are warning of an impending epidemic in the very near future.

Decisions, decisions

Parents who remain undecided should obtain all the facts and discuss them fully with their doctor prior to proceeding.

Deciding to actively intervene by opting for vaccination means taking a certain responsibility.

But deciding not to vaccinate at all, leaving your child's health in the hands of fate, means taking no responsibility whatsoever.

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